The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum will open for the 2022 season with the exhibit, “This Just In: Recent Acquisitions at the Museum.”
The exhibit will open at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Carriage House Interpretive Center at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum.
A lot of people may believe history museums stop adding to their collections. Lew Wallace died in 1905, after all, so nothing has changed about his life since then, right? But we are constantly learning new things about Lew. In the past few years, people have decided some pieces should come to the museum as we help tell Wallace’s story to the world. Paintings and other artwork inspired by Ben-Hur, The Fair God and the Study grounds have been donated. Just last year museum staff were contacted by someone who had a notarized document that the ornate carriage lanterns they wanted to donate had been owned by Wallace.
Some items are easier to verify than others (and some still haven’t been traced). In the 2022 exhibit, visitors will learn what guides a museum’s decisions to collect (or not collect) certain pieces. Staff members will discuss aspects of the musuem’s vision and mission statements and collections policy, among other guiding documents, and they will tell the stories of some of the pieces they have added to the collection in the past decade.
The exhibit may be viewed free of charge from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. “This Just In” will run through early December 2022. The Study is also open for guided tours. The museum requests visitors seeking a guided tour of the Study book their appointment ahead of time, but walk-ins will be accommodated as much as possible. Tours last approximately one hour and are $7 for adults and $3 or $1 for students. As a precaution, museum staff will still wear masks.
Other upcoming events at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum include American Battlefield Trust’s Park Day on April 2 and Hoosier Authors Book Club on April 7. Park Day is a grounds work day from 9 a.m. to noon. Hoosier Authors Book Club will be virtual on Zoom; participants must register ahead of time to receive a link.
For more information about the exhibit, visit https://www.ben-hur.com/programs/annual-exhibit or contact Larry Paarlberg at 765-362-5769 or lpaarlberg@ben-hur.com.
